A ghost-blue beam lanced into the Mechanical Mantis’s tail, like moonlight hardened into a spear.

Though it wasn’t fierce, it took like a spark in dry grass, and blue raced over its body like wildfire.

Sss... sss...

Electric sparks flickered at its joints like fireflies, a scorched smell curling up like burnt leaves, and the swaggering machine toppled like a felled tree.

On the causeway, safety flowed back like a receding tide.

“S-Sis Kiki?”

The two girls stared at the blue-haired rescuer, her outline flowing like water, that familiar hair like drifting streamers—yes, it was Sis Kiki.

“Xiao Dong… is that really you? And Xiao Bei…?”

Aiqiqi looked toward Yue Liuyi in surprise, her gaze soft as rain; not icy-beautiful like LittleSnow, but warm as spring sun.

She felt like the big sister next door, or the shrine’s kind senior, a presence like a quiet garden.

“Sh-should be…” Yue Liuyi lowered her head, shyness falling like a veil, because Sis Kiki knew Dongfang Chen could turn into a girl.

That secret was known to only a few on Dreamwood Star, tucked away like a seed under snow.

When Yue Liuyi had panicked at the sudden change, like a deer in cold fog, Sis Kiki helped her find a way back and warned her not to use it lightly.

A lone girl on Dreamwood Star was like a candle in the wind, fragile against lurking storms.

“Xiao… Xiao Dong, thank goodness you came back safe…” Sis Kiki hurried over like a breeze, lifted the kneeling Bernadette like easing a sapling, and clasped Yue Liuyi’s hand with palm-warmth.

“Sis Kiki, th-this is…?” The engineer girl’s thoughts spun like leaves in a whirl, so she gripped Kiki’s hand like a lifeline, the softness steadying her breath.

“Xiao Dong, Xiao Bei, details later,” Kiki’s voice lay calm as a dusk lake. “We have to leave now, or if the Tree of Enlightenment wakes, it’s too late.”

“Tree of Enlightenment?” The question sprang like a startled bird.

“Yes, that mechanical tree in the center,” she said, her glance quick as a swallow.

Though Kiki didn’t spell it out, urgency pricked Yue Liuyi’s skin like thorns, and along the thick chains to the passage, more Mechanical Mantises crawled out like iron locusts.

“Xiao Dong, can you still walk? Do you want me to carry you?” Her concern settled like a warm quilt.

“N-no problem!” Yue Liuyi braced herself like bamboo in wind.

“Then I’ll carry Xiao Bei,” Sis Kiki said, steady as a pine. “Xiao Dong, stay behind me, and don’t stray.”

“No need, I can walk too.” Bernadette stood, her fear melting like frost; she’d been shaken, not hurt.

“Are you sure?” Kiki’s gaze searched like lamplight.

“Mm!” The answer rang like a bell.

The three girls ran, their footsteps scattering like rain on stone.

At the same time, other Mechanical Mantises surged as if sensing a comrade’s end, swarming like a steel tide toward the girls.

Their front and hind legs clamped to the cavern walls like anchors, and they attacked from every angle like diving hawks.

Yet none reached them, because blue light found them like lightning, quick and cold.

Like the first one, each mantis fizzed with sparks like summer cicadas, and once the blue touched them, their strength faded like dying embers.

Sis Kiki kept casting that blue, sweeping the path clean like a river in flood, and soon they reached the underground tunnel’s mouth without a scratch.

The ease itself felt strange to Yue Liuyi, like sweet tea hiding a bitter note, because their agility and lethality screamed military craft.

Even for Yue Liuyi, cutting them down would take effort like chopping tough vines, yet Sis Kiki dropped them effortlessly, one by one, like tapping a switch.

It was so simple it felt like she pressed their self-destruct, and they stopped on their own like clocks with stolen springs.

(What… what is going on…?) The thought fluttered like a moth against glass.

Yue Liuyi wouldn’t doubt Sis Kiki, yet the discordant greenhouse, the winding tunnels, the giant mechanical tree, and the mantis killers stacked up like stones in her chest.

Despite the doubts, the girls moved through the tunnel like fish in a dark stream.

“We’re here,” Sis Kiki halted before a heavy revolving door like a millstone. “Through this door, you’re safe.”

“Th-this is…?” The question trembled like a reed.

“It’s the exit of the underground labyrinth,” Aiqiqi said, voice clear as a bell. “Follow the stairs up to reach the surface of Linluo City.”

She set her palm to the door’s center, and blue light bloomed like a lotus.

The door turned and opened, revealing stairs rising like a spine.

“So amazing…” Awe spilled like starlight.

“Huh? Sister, aren’t you coming with us?” The plea clung like a child’s hand.

“I know you both have many questions,” she said, steady as earth. “But I must return to the control center and erase all trace of Xiao Dong’s arrival.”

“Huh!? Erase the traces…?” The words fell like pebbles into a well.

“Mm. Xiao Dong hasn’t been on Dreamwood Star for years, and you don’t know what it’s become,” Kiki said, her eyes darkening like a storm front.

She drew a card from her breast pocket and pressed it into Yue Liuyi’s hand like a pressed leaf. “Basic info is on this card. Don’t come here again.”

“They’ll do anything to use you,” her warning cut like winter wind.

Compared to years ago, Sis Kiki was more mature, her charm deepened like aged wine, but her eyes were still as gentle as at the Moon Post Bookstore.

“Uu… b-but…” Yue Liuyi’s reluctance gathered like rain, unwilling to leave Kiki alone in these depths. “Um… Sis Kiki, you really won’t go? I already found the Eternal Tear.”

She drew a pendant from her collar like a shy moon.

“You found it?” Kiki’s surprise flashed like dawn. “Nicely done.”

She ruffled Yue Liuyi’s hair, her touch warm as sunlight on pine.

“Does Dreamwood Star have hope?” The question leapt like a spark.

“Yes,” she said, firm as rock. “With this, Xiao Dong has a way to survive.”

“Huh?” The confusion hovered like mist.

“When danger comes, just use the Eternal Tear,” her reassurance flowed like a clear stream.

“Eh? The Eternal Tear…” The name chimed like crystal.

“As long as Xiao Dong lives, we still have hope, and none of our efforts go to waste,” she said, soft as falling snow. “So you must live, World Tree Maiden.”

She spoke that title to Yue Liuyi, each word gentle as petals.